Articulator

ABSTRACT

An articulator provides for a wearer to bite it between the teeth in the upper jaw and the teeth in the lower jaw. The articulator includes an upper brace and a lower brace formed integrally; whereas, an occlusion unit is formed between the upper brace and the lower brace, thereby providing for biting by the wearer. The front edges of the upper brace and the lower brace are connected to a protector through a connector. When the wearer bites the articulator, the protector is disposed on an outer edge of the lips for protection. An exhalation opening is formed between the braces and the protector, and is provided with a movable plate that is flipped outward. Therefore, when the wearer bites the articulator, he or she can carry out a respiratory training by inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth, thereby increasing the vital capacity effectively.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The disclosed device relates to orthopedics and more particularly to sports technology.

BACKGROUND

A sport brace is used primarily to protect the incisors; when a chin is hit, the sport brace can absorb part of impact force and protect the temporomandibular joint as well. Therefore, in the past, the sport braces are used frequently in the sports with a strong impact force, such as boxing, wrestling or Taekwondo.

However, as the continuous increase in the consciousness of self-protection, athletes will start using the sport braces while doing the sports in which their heads may be impacted. In addition, there are even studies abroad showing that when the athletes wear the sport braces, their performance will improve. It is speculated that when the athletes use their muscle power instantaneously, the teeth will create a strong occlusion force as well, and the soft material in the sport braces can buffer the occlusion force to achieve the effect of stress relaxation.

The conventional braces are only capable of protecting the athletes' teeth, and if the vital capacity of the athletes can be increased when the athletes bite the braces, the practicality of the braces can be increased significantly.

Accordingly, there are still some shortcomings in the abovementioned conventional braces, which are indeed not a good design and thus need improvement badly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, an object of the disclosure is to provide an articulator that can protect a wearer's incisors and increase the vital capacity of the wearer at a same time.

To achieve the abovementioned object, the articulator provides for the wearer to bite it between the upper jaw and the lower jaw. The articulator comprises an upper brace and a lower brace that are formed integrally, with an occlusion unit being formed between the upper jaw and the lower jaw, and an outer baffle being formed on front edges of the upper jaw and the lower jaw. Therefore, the articulator provides for biting by the wearer, and when the wearer bites the articulator, the teeth in the upper jaw and the teeth in the lower jaw are disposed inside the outer baffle.

An outer side of the outer baffle is connected to a protector through a connector. The protector is in an arc shape and a gap is formed between the protector and the outer baffle through the provision of the connector. When the wearer bites the articulator, as the lips are disposed in the gap, they will be protected.

In some embodiments, the connector is formed with an exhalation opening which penetrates the outer baffle and the protector. The exhalation opening is provided with a movable plate that can be flipped outward. Therefore, when the wearer bites the articulator, he or she can carry out a respiratory training by inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth, which will increase the vital capacity effectively and correct the bad habit of inhaling and exhaling through the mouth. Actually, the articulator of the present invention can also serve as a very good medical rehabilitation appliance to increase the vital capacity in the period of after-cure.

In some embodiments, the occlusion unit of the articulator is in a plate shape.

In other embodiments, the protector of the articulator disclosed by the present invention is in an arc shape.

A side of the protector of the articulator can be provided with a fixed hole for transfixing with a fixed rope.

In certain embodiments, the movable plate of the articulator can be formed integrally with the exhalation opening.

In more particular embodiments, the movable plate of the articulator is separated from the exhalation opening.

The movable plate of the articulator, in a separated design, is extended with an adhesive piece which can be adhered on the exhalation opening.

To enable a further understanding of the said objectives and the technological methods disclosed herein, the brief description of the drawings below is followed by the detailed description of the preferred embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a three-dimensional schematic view of an articulator of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a three-dimensional schematic view of the articulator of the present invention from another angle.

FIG. 3 shows a front view of the articulator of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a rear view of the articulator of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a cutaway view of the articulator of the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a structural view of an action of the articulator of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a schematic view of implementation of biting, according to the articulator of the present invention.

FIG. 8 shows another structural view of the articulator of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The disclosed devices and methods are hereinafter described in relation to exemplary embodiments and the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 6, the articulator for a wearer to bite it between the teeth in the upper jaw and the teeth in the lower jaw. The articulator comprises an occlusion unit 1, a protector 14, and an exhalation opening 17. The occlusion unit 1 is in a plate shape, and a front edge of the occlusion unit 1 is provided with an outer baffle 11, forming respectively an upper brace 12 and a lower brace 13 at the upper side and the lower side of the outer baffle 11 and the occlusion unit 1. Therefore, the articulator provides for biting by the wearer and when the wearer bites the articulator, the teeth in the upper jaw and the teeth in the lower jaw will be disposed inside the outer baffle 11.

The protector 14 is disposed at the front edge of the outer baffle 11 through the connector 15. The protector 14 is in an arc shape, and a gap is formed between the protector 14 and the outer baffle 11 through the provision of the connector 15. When the wearer bites the articulator of the present invention, as the lips are disposed in the gap, they will be protected. On the other hand, a side of the protector 14 is provided with a fixed hole 16 which allows the wearer to transfix with a fixed rope that the articulator can be fixed on the wearer, thereby preventing the articulator from falling on the ground.

The connector 15 is formed with the exhaling opening 17 which penetrates the outer baffle 11 and the protector 14. More specifically, the exhaling opening 17 is interconnected with the wearer's mouth, and is provided with a movable plate 18 which can be only flipped outward. The provision of the exhaling opening 17 and the movable plate 18 provides the wearer to exhale through the mouth.

Referring to FIG. 7, it shows a schematic view of implementation of the articulator of the present invention. When the wearer bites the articulator, it can be seen clearly from the drawing that the wearer can inhale through the nose N and exhale through the mouth M to carry out a respiratory training. When the wearer exhales, the movable plate 18 will be flipped outward to provide for the wearer to exhale. However, as the movable plate 18 can be only flipped outward, the wearer is unable to inhale and exhale through the mouth and thus is forced to inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth, thereby increasing the vital capacity effectively and correcting the bad habit in inhaling and exhaling through the mouth.

As shown in FIG. 8, in addition to that the movable plate 18 of the articulator of the present invention can be formed integrally with the exhalation opening 17, it can also be separably combined with the exhalation opening 17. More specifically, the movable plate 18 is extended with an adhesive piece 19 which can be adhered on an upper edge of the exhalation opening 17, so that the movable plate 18 can be fixed on the exhalation opening 17 to achieve the same effect as the abovementioned embodiment.

It is of course to be understood that the embodiments described herein is merely illustrative of the principles and that a wide variety of modifications thereto may be effected by persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the devices and methods as set forth in the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An articulator, comprising: an occlusion unit, a front edge of the occlusion unit is provided with an outer baffle, forming respectively an upper brace and a lower brace at an upper side and a lower side of the outer baffle and the occlusion unit; a protector which is disposed at a front edge of the outer baffle through a connector, forming a gap between the protector and the outer baffle through the provision of the connector; and an exhalation opening which penetrates the connector and the outer baffle, and is provided with a movable plate flipping outward.
 2. The articulator according to claim 1, wherein the occlusion unit is in a plate shape.
 3. The articulator according to claim 1, wherein the occlusion unit is in an arc shape.
 4. The articulator according to claim 1, wherein the movable plate is formed integrally with the exhalation opening.
 5. The articulator according to claim 1, wherein the movable plate is separated from the exhalation opening.
 6. The articulator according to claim 5, wherein the movable plate, in a separated design, is extended with an adhesive piece which is adhered on the exhalation opening. 